Tiger snaps over Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandes taunt that it is just “a bunch of white guys running the airline”

Tiger Airways has blasted perceived racial comments made by Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandes who said that “ We're Asians, not a bunch of white guys running the airline”, in reference to Tiger Airways which is headed by Tony Davis.

The brouhaha comes after reports in the Bangkok Post that Mr Fernandes also described Tiger as an "odd" choice for a business ally [of Thai Airways] , noting that it was not making much money. As well, it faces a pilot shortage that on Tuesday forced it to cancel 35% of its flights, "They have not yet been able to solve their problems, so what are they going to teach the THAI?"

The report said Mr Fernandes is also sceptical about having westerners running any successful Asia-based business, referring to some Tiger Airways management.

"We're Asians, not a bunch of white guys running the airline," he said, explaining that Thai AirAsia was run by Thai management who know the local and Asian markets.

"This is Asia, Asian brand, Asian culture," added Kathleen Tan, regional head for commercial affairs of AirAsia.

In a response to Singapore Business Review, Tiger Airways said it was disappointed and surprised to read reports that the head of AirAsia has passed racial remarks against Tiger Airways.

“Resorting to racial slurs is unbecoming and unnecessary. Tiger Airways is proud of our employees’ contributions regardless of their race or cultural background. Positions are determined by merit alone. In any case, we happen to have a great racial and cultural diversity across our Board, management and the rest of the organization.”

Tiger also hit back over Air Asia ads which depicted Tiger Airways as a cartoon tiger bear, crying, below the caption of “If tigers were meant to fly, they would have been born with wings.”

In response, Tiger told Singapore Business Review :”We thank them for spending so much money in publicising us and driving even more traffic to our website which is firmly established as the No. 1 airline website in Singapore.
Competition between low-cost airlines is great for customers. We not only welcome competition, but we will intensify it with our successful business model and new airlines in many parts of the region, including Thai Tiger. By offering the lowest fares, we have thrived in Asia and Australia despite futile attempts by competitors to stop us.